Inside the US singer-songwriter’s path from early DIY explorations to modern country-folk force

SPARKS AND SUEDE KEEP IT SPIKY, BRYAN FERRY RELAXES INTO A NEW ERA AND ANDY BELL SERVES UP A MASTERCLASS IN HOOK-LADEN POP 01 SPARKS MAD! (TRANSGRESSIVE) Sparks may have landed on a new record label i

In 1976, the revolutionary singer-songwriter LAURA NYRO returned from self-imposed exile. But her comeback confounded expectations, shifting away from the impassioned intimacies of her early albums to embrace more radical perspectives. Fifty years on, Nyro’s collaborators revisit her striking second act. “She was a hip American from the Bronx,” one friend and producer tells Rob Hughes. “But her soul was old.”

From Laurel Canyon to Chiswick High Road, from Rancho De La Luna to a warehouse in Tottenham, many of your favourite artists have been hard at work crafting the soundtrack of 2026. Over the next 10 pages, we bring you the inside track on forthcoming albums by STEVIE NICKS , COURTNEY BARNETT , ALABAMA SHAKES , THE ROLLING STONES , BILL CALLAHAN , BUZZCOCKS , LANA DEL REY , SUNN O))) , ROBERT PLANT , IRON & WINE and many more. “It’s a really special time for music…”

From The Bottom Of An Old Grandfather Clock (reissue, 2004) DEAD OCEANS

This month…